


A Girl and Her Dragon

by stellacanta



Series: Love Never Dies [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons, Gen, Mythical Beings & Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-24 00:08:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18559921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellacanta/pseuds/stellacanta
Summary: There was a dragon in the mountains that surrounded Crowe’s home. Or, well, stories said there was a dragon. The morning after her parents died, and it became clear her remaining family wasn’t going to take her in, she climbed those damned mountains intending to find out if it was really there or not. She figured there were worse places to be than a mountain cave, if there wasn’t actually a dragon there.





	A Girl and Her Dragon

**Author's Note:**

> There's technically blink and you'll miss it draucor here, so I didn't bother tagging it xD

Glauan was one of those tiny villages in northern Cavaugh that one would never be able to find on a map of Lucis. (Any map of Lucis, there were just too many of those tiny little villages that the map would be filled with black text if you tried to fit them all in.) Crowe had squinted at enough maps of Lucis to know for a fact, her tiny fingers tracing over the blank spot on the map where it should be. A patch of green and mountains that deceptively bore no text.

Some maps had the mountain for which the village was named, but no Glauan. Trust the mapmakers to decide that Mt. Glauca was more important than tiny little Glauan, ‘in Glauca’s shadow’. 

There were a lot of mountains in Cavaugh too, more than some stuffy Lucian mapmaker somewhere in Insomnia most likely would realize. But more than that, there were a lot of stories of those mountains. (That they lived, that they breathed smoke on cold mornings, that some of them were actually dragons.)

The hike towards the mountains that was rumored to hold the local amongst its number carved through thick forest and overgrown brush. The path was barely a path. It was more of deer trail (a make believe deer trail) than an actual road. Crowe had a hard time believing pilgrims would walk through the damn trail with offerings for the dragon. If they did, it had been a long time ago. (A long, long time ago. Before Crowe’s great-grandparents were born long time ago.)

It was almost disappointing when the path slipped downward, into what looked to be a cave or a clearing, and there wasn’t really anything to write home about. She had almost twisted her ankle more than a few times, and all see got was some trees and a giant hunk of rock that took up most of it.

Crowe kicked the stupid rock, black with a hint of wine red and wow wasn’t that a weird color combination to be seeing around these parts, and winced when it came away feeling like kicking a damn rock. What she had been expecting, she couldn’t even tell you. 

A rumble echoed through the clearing. She stared at the rock when it began to move, or more accurately, slide back. Wait, huh?

“Oh,” a voice as loud as thunder and as gravely as a rockslide asked. “What is this?” Crowe would have slapped her hands over her poor ears, except she was too busy staring at what was quickly becoming clear was a mouth several meters away. A dragon’s mouth full of sharp pointy teeth. She gulped. Above her the dragon’s massive eye looked down at her and a thin trail of smoke rose from its snout. “A human,” the dragon continued in a whisper. It was still fairly loud but it didn’t make her ears hurt this time. She grinned at the head that took up the entirety of what she could see in thanks. “It has been so long since I have seen a human come to these parts. What brings you here dear child?”

“I- I came to ask you for a favor!” Her voice shook only slightly as she spoke, and she was proud of the fact.

A low rumble echoed through the clearing and she could only stare when she realized the dragon was chuckling. It was chuckling at _her_. “If it is something I can grant, then I will grant it. Speak freely, dear child.”

“I- um-“ She looked down at her feet and kicked some pebbles down there. “-my parents died yesterday and I don’t think the rest of my family, or the village, likes me very much. Do you think you can do something to make them take me in? Give some proof of courage or something so they want to let me stay with them?” The question sounded silly in her mind. It sounded even sillier given that she was asking it of a dragon that was as big as any mountain she had known and hadn’t tried to eat her yet. She didn’t know if dragons ate girls with stupid questions, but she didn’t want to find out.

Silence and then the foreleg she was standing in front parted and the dragon snaked its massive head to her. “Oh child,” it said to her and rested its snout in front of her, nudging her with more gentleness than she would have thought for a creature of its size. “I can do better than a mark of honor. Would you like to keep me company dear child if your village will not take in you?”

Crowe looked at the dragon, eyes wide. Was it- did it just offer her a home? “I- you wouldn’t mind?!” The dragon laughed again before it closed its eyes in delight and breathed warm air over her. It was quite pleasant actually, warming her chilled bones and erasing the memory of cold from within her. It was warm, but not too hot.She scrunched up her nose. “What was that for?”

“Why dear child, that’s how dragons say hello.” The dragon nudged her with its snout again. “I am simply saying welcome.” Crowe grinned. Just saying hello huh? She liked that. She huffed air as hard as she could on the dragon’s snout and got a delighted laugh for her troubles. 

…

Staying with a dragon in its dragon cave didn’t turn out to be all that bad. The dragon had a ditch filled with soft warm furs for her to sleep in (apparently it was used to the occasional human guest) and would curl itself around her during the night to keep her warm. It also had a giant pile of weapons in the cave where it slept and it laughed in delight when she plucked a wicked looking dagger off of it. It showed her how to hunt and what plants were safe to eat after that, delighting in cooking the things she gathered with superheated smoke whenever she brought it before her. 

She shared some of the game that she was able to feed to the dragon. The dragon always hummed in delight even as she wondered if it would be enough to keep it fed. 

The dragon even gave her a special nickname. Little blackbird, it would call her, after her name. “What should I could you then,” she had asked the first time she had been called as such.

The dragon had laughed. “Whatever you wish, little crow. The previous humans called me Glauca, and you may also call me that if you wish.”

“After the mountain?” She scrunched up her face in thought. “Was the mountain named after you, or were you named after the mountain?” The dragon breathed warm air over her and she did the same thing over its snout. (Huffs and nudges were just how dragons communicated, it seemed. She didn’t find herself minding so much.)

Their daily routine was interrupted by the presence of a stranger who nimbly stepped down through the forest path. Crowe stared at the stranger as if that would get him to reveal who he was. The stranger stared first at her and then the dragon and then back at her. Finally after a staring contest the stranger shook his head and walked towards the dragon. “Didn’t know you were in the habit of adopting kids, Red.” Red seemed to be the stranger’s name for the dragon. She had learned that dragons went by many name, and would never correct the name that someone chose for them. (Unless it was just wrong, like calling a blue dragon Green.)

“I would like to think this little one found me,” the dragon replied smoothly. “After all, she did not have a home in this village and I offered her one here.”

“You talking in run out runts now?” She glared at the stranger. Wow, rude. And the stranger wasn’t that much older than her, 14 instead of anything old enough to warrant being so judgmental. “You never struck me as the type, Red.”

The dragon made a noise but didn’t say anything more. She watched as the stranger walked to the dragon’s snout and leaned against it, rubbing a hand against its scales. A hazy mist of smoke surrounded the stranger and she looked away. The scene too intimate to be viewed for too long. The stranger stood with the dragon in silence for what felt like the better part of the day as she explored the clearing and hunted more game for dinner. (She wondered how long they had known each other. She wondered if the stranger had come to see the dragon as a small child if they had known each other that well.) The stranger stayed for dinner that night, and was still there in the morning.

When the stranger saw Crowe stare down a cougar while she was hunting the next day, he shouted at the dragon. “Red, you cannot raise a kid like this,” he said after he had tugged her to safety when she had bared her teeth and snarled at the cougar to get it to move. “She’s a human, which are very mortal I’ll have you know, and not a dragon.”

The dragon just gave a long sigh. “But is it not good for the little blackbird to learn confidence? To know that she has strength in her small form and has nothing to fear from others?”

“It’s not good when she nearly gets eaten by a cougar thinking she’s bigger than she actually is.” The stranger narrowed his eyes at the dragon and Crowe huffed, about to argue that she had it handled when the dragon spoke up in her defense.

“I was watching her. It seemed as though she handled it admirably, my heart.”

The man snorted. “Yeah, because there’s a big bad dragon with a lot of teeth just sitting there. You’re not always going to be there for her, Red. She needs to learn to fight her own battles and that she’s not a damned dragon that can boss around everything because they’re all smaller than her.” 

The dragon didn’t have anything to say in response to that. He apologized to her by of letting her sit on his snot and telling her stories about times long passed. That night she slept curled up with his neck curled around him like she was something precious. The stranger slept with one scaly forearm next to him and she stuck her tongue out at him when he complained about the dragon being a sentimental fool.

The stranger stayed for another week, showing her the finer points of wielding her dagger and teaching her a bit of swordplay and tracking tips besides. Crowe warmed up to him a bit by time he left and she stood on the dragon’s head to wave goodbye when he walked up the path out of the clearing. The dragon blew a stream of smoke towards the stranger when he finally disappeared into the woods.

…

It was not even two weeks later that the dragon disappeared and she was woken by a robed figure. “Get up, little blackbird,” the figure said gently, masculine voice muffled by the scarf around his mouth. “If there was one thing Cor was right about, it was that you should spend more time with humans.”

The nickname did it for her. There was only one being that called her ‘little blackbird’ and that was the dragon. She rubbed her eyes blearily and tried to figure out how the dragon had suddenly became human. The man chuckled as he got a fire started and began to make a simple breakfast. “I could always do this, blackbird, but this form feels small and constricting sometimes, and, when I’m here, I’m happy to make use of the space.” Crowe looked around her. The cavern the dragon was sleeping in seemed giant without the dragon actually there. It was only because the dragon was so big that the cave seemed small.

“Awww, I can’t stay here forever,” she asked after she accepted some bread and meat the man had on him. 

“No, my dear blackbird, I’m afraid you can’t.”

“Mmmm,” she tried not to feel disappointed at the pronouncement. It also seemed the dragon could tell because the dragon in man’s form pulled her into a tight hug. It was warm, and engulfing, just like being by the dragon and she hugged him back. 

“Now, finish eating and we’ll be off,” he said after pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. “It would do you good to socialize with another human being for once. I, too, would enjoy hearing what has been happening as of late.” 

The dragon had a smaller set of robes that he helped her into, and he took her to another village on the opposite of the mountain. There, they bought food and clothing for her and some books and a couple of shiny things that caught her eye. The dragon did not say anything when some of those shiny things turned out to be weapons, but she could tell he was amused by the way his shoulders shook slightly when he purchased them for her. 

They ended up making an event out of the trip. They ate out at a local restaurant and the dragon read some of the books he had bought out loud by the stream that passed by the village. At dusk when it was finally time to leave, he carried her on his back all the way to the clearing, and did not say a word when she was sound asleep when he placed her back in the den of furs.

…

There were more trips to different surrounding villages before the day that the dragon finally led her back to Glauan. There had also been gifts that the dragon had given her in the meantime. A set of beautifully crafted throwing knives. A dress the color of amber. Two daggers, wicked sharp with an elegantly crafted grip that seemed to mold itself into her hands. A book of poems she loved to pour over. A book of stories he would read to her from every time they visited a new place. Some textbooks for the days of school she had missed. A red dragon plushie that Crowe had promptly named Baby Glauca when he had handed it to her. 

He gave her his last gift on the outskirts of the village. A necklace with a brilliant ruby in the middle and two chains around it. He had helped put it on her after she held it in her hands and looked up to him with wide, adoring eyes. “This is my last gift to you, little blackbird,” he said before pressing their foreheads together. “Remember that you are loved and, if you ever have need of me, breathe life upon that gem and I shall come to your aid.” 

He huffed warm air upon her nose and she huffed warm air upon his. He only left when the warmth of the breath disappeared and did not look back at her. This was how dragons said farewell, she surmised. Crowe stared at the horizon until she could make out the speck that was the dragon in human form no longer and headed back to the village to the house of her relatives.

…

Crowe met Libertus when neither Galahd nor the northern reaches of Cavaugh became safe, and many of its people fled to Insomnia where the wall still held. She greeted him with bared teeth and a snarl to get him to leave. When he didn’t and insisted on coming closer, too stupid to read her body language, he found himself stabbed in the arm with one of the daggers the dragon had given her.


End file.
